Directing collective Dvein, whose roost is NYC production company Blacklist, turned out this experimental video interpretation of The Dismemberment Plan’s hit song “Daddy Was a Real Good Dancer. “Symbiosis” is the latest installment in the New Music Weekly campaign on digital music service Rdio, the three-year-old challenger brand to Spotify, Pandora, MOG and Grooveshark. The innovative New Music Weekly campaign, launched last July, brings together the best in independent art and music with a series of original video pieces from visual artists around the world inspired by new music.
This is the second entry in the series by the award winning, Barcelona-based Dvein (hot off an Aussie FX & Animation Fest Gold Music Video Award for The Vein “Magma”), which earlier released “Sculpture” for HAIM’s “My Song 5. Blacklist has provided a number of directors and animators for the Rdio campaign including Holbrooks, Tendril, Upper First and Wizz, creating pieces based on music by Icona Pop, Bloc Party, Typhoon, Pond, Michael Franti and Gogol Bordello. New Music Weekly releases original videos each week on Vice, NPR Vimeo, Pitchfork and on Rdio’s Tumblr page, where the videos are offered as gifs. The campaign thus far has nearly 3.5 million public facing views.
“We don’t see these as music videos but instead something more personal for our visual artists, creating art inspired by music, rather than literal interpretations,” said Nada Antoun, global PR director of Rdio, which is owned by Skype. “This campaign has shown that new art inspired by new music promotes discovery.”
Eleanor Adds Director Candice Vernon To Its Roster For Spots and Branded Content
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The “Small Spaces” campaign marks a major departure from Febreze’s typical blue-and-white world. The home of the “Revolving Door” commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, “I asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that we’re not a monolith.”
Following the success of the “Small Spaces” campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, “About two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed there’s actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candice’s reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where we’re trying to go.”
Vernon brings a unique lens to... Read More